Third Party

From Conservapedia

A third party, in any democratic republic having a presidential system of government, is any political party smaller and less powerful than the largest and most powerful two. Such parties rarely, if ever, gain power or even representation in the legislative branch of government at the federal level, but often gain representation or even dominance at a provincial or municipal level. But the Republican Party remains today the memorable exception: a third party that displaced one of the two major parties of its day when that party was in steep decline. (The other major party, the Democratic Party, remains today.)

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Political conditions

Normally, parliamentary governments (in which the executive is a member of the legislature, elected by the legislature, and responsible to the legislature) allow minor political parties to have a minimal level of representation at all times. These parties often become valuable coalition partners for either of the two most powerful parties, unless those two parties can reconcile their differences and form "national unity governments."

But presidential governments (having independently elected executives) usually form two-party systems in which two political parties become entrenched, and minor parties do not matter, except as electoral spoilers.

Thus the only vote of national import that a voter casts is a vote to elect a President (or, in the United States, to choose one particular delegation of Presidential Electors). Thus the typical result is the complete dominance of government by one or the other major party, or at other times, a division of government between executive and legislative branches, or between the two houses of the legislature if that legislature (like the United States Congress or any State legislature) is bicameral.

Third-party rise and fall

Minor or "third parties" in a presidential system typically arise because the major parties, being very large, are often slow to react to new issues, or to develop strategies to appeal to new voting blocs that are finding their identities for the first time. But third-party movements can fall just as quickly when one of two things happen to their issues:

Voters lose interest.

One of the major parties co-opts the issue and incorporates it into its own platform.

Without unique issues that remain exclusive to them, political parties cannot survive—and no such thing as intellectual property rights exist to "protect" third parties from major-party issue co-optation.

In addition, third-party movements sometimes fail when their voters grow impatient with their continued electoral failures.

Relevance of third parties

While third-party candidates rarely win elections, third parties often hold relevance in elections:

"Splitting the vote" - if a third-party candidate is moderate or takes positions similar to the two major party candidates, the vote for a candidate may be split, allowing the opposing candidate to win. For example, in 1992, Reform Party candidate Ross Perot split the vote with Republican George H. W. Bush, allowing Democrat Bill Clinton to win the presidency. In 2000, Green Party candidate Ralph Nader split the vote with Democrat Al Gore, allowing Republican George W. Bush to win the election.